I was with Moore until he said it wasn't the Unions faults...GM, Ford, and Chrysler pay 2-3 times more in wages and healthcare than any other car maker. To say the Unions aren't at fault is a pretty dumb thing to say, especially if you consider that GM is STILL the number one car maker in the WORLD, but are still bleeding cash.

[edit on 21-11-2008 by yellowcard]

So why has everybody glossed over the fact that GM wanted to also play the role of a finance company? A greedy desire that exposed them, a car company, to the subprime mortgage mess.

Nobody, even on this board, has mentioned that one little detail. GM is on the hook for more than just bad cars. Remember they were in talks to sell the rest of their finance division to Cerebus, who owns Chrysler, in return for purchase of all or part of Chrysler. Sorry, that deal hadn't gone through yet, so GM is burning heavy cash on its finance side. Thats one reason why they are bleeding cash.

They at least should have asked the government for some bailout money on that. They might have gotten away with that.

Originally posted by CAPT PROTON
So why has everybody glossed over the fact that GM wanted to also play the role of a finance company? A greedy desire that exposed them, a car company, to the subprime mortgage mess.

Nobody, even on this board, has mentioned that one little detail. GM is on the hook for more than just bad cars. Remember they were in talks to sell the rest of their finance division to Cerebus, who owns Chrysler, in return for purchase of all or part of Chrysler. Sorry, that deal hadn't gone through yet, so GM is burning heavy cash on its finance side. Thats one reason why they are bleeding cash.

They at least should have asked the government for some bailout money on that. They might have gotten away with that.

That's a good point, GM should spin off their GM Capital division and make it a bank holding company so they can access the Fed window, then they could loan cash to GM... but let's face it, Chrysler, and Ford who have little to no subprime exposure are still in trouble, the biggest issue is the greedy unions. I am not against unions, I'm against unions that are greedy, steal their employees money and lobby to Congress to punish companies.

Originally posted by yellowcard
I was with Moore until he said it wasn't the Unions faults...GM, Ford, and Chrysler pay 2-3 times more in wages and healthcare than any other car maker. To say the Unions aren't at fault is a pretty dumb thing to say, especially if you consider that GM is STILL the number one car maker in the WORLD, but are still bleeding cash.

[edit on 21-11-2008 by yellowcard]

But it isn't the unions fault. What do they have control over? Nothing. Do you even know the purpose of a union? It's to look out for the worker because corporations like this generally don't. And if we had national health care program now we as the workers wouldn't have to worry about that would we? Sorry hon but Michael Moore is correct.

Originally posted by CAPT PROTON
So why has everybody glossed over the fact that GM wanted to also play the role of a finance company? A greedy desire that exposed them, a car company, to the subprime mortgage mess.

Nobody, even on this board, has mentioned that one little detail. GM is on the hook for more than just bad cars. Remember they were in talks to sell the rest of their finance division to Cerebus, who owns Chrysler, in return for purchase of all or part of Chrysler. Sorry, that deal hadn't gone through yet, so GM is burning heavy cash on its finance side. Thats one reason why they are bleeding cash.

They at least should have asked the government for some bailout money on that. They might have gotten away with that.

Hmm very interesting. I didn't know that. It is some food for fault. And of course the unions have nothing to do with that I'm pretty sure....

It is called a business plan. A good business plan brings good results. A bad business plan leads to a modern day GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Moore is correct in what he says but people have been saying this for years. No new news here. As far as the union, I say they can be good and bad.